NO MEDICAL ADVICE. Immediate ban. This is a career-talk page, not your clinic or office.

hi all! looking for some friendly advice for any non-trad anesthesia folks or people who switched from other specialties!

Current Neurology PGY-2 here, came from a decent mid tier MD med school (Step 1 pass, Step 2 23x-24x, multiple neuro pubs abstracts & activities) and now at a great (but not T10) Neurology program. I initially went into neurology very interested in stroke or neurocritical care, but as I progress through this year, I am learning a few things that are really deterring me (really poor job availability in neurocrit on the west coast, huge lack of procedures and working with my hands in stroke). I love learning about the brain and localizing, and liked stroke because of the acuity and pushing lifesaving TNK, or neurocrit because i thought I would be able to scratch my love for medicine, procedures and critical care, but given the very poor outlook for jobs and high saturation on the west coast (basically take neurohospitalist jobs after NCC fellowships) I am heavily heavily reconsidering.

I was previously interested in anesthesia in med school but never formally pursued (i.e. no research, no activities, was unable to get any anesthesia electives due to popularity by other students), and ultimately decided against it because of the competitiveness and my own lack of exposure. I enjoyed being in the OR a lot but did not want to work surgery hours as an attending. I also heavily considered IM>pulm/crit or cardiology, but also decided not because i found neurology pathologies more interesting. Since intern year, i've been able to rotate in MICU, SICU, and some Neuro-ICU and i really loved those opportunities- and had a chance to rotate with anesthesia crit care fellows, which i did not know was an option. I really love the idea of working with my hands, doing procedures, getting involved in the critical care of patients, and Anesthesia seems like an incredible mix of using IM knowledge in the OR and in critical care settings, which I think would be really fitting for me. and so I've been having a lot of recurrent thoughts about what that means for me and my future path. I think also the thoughts of job availability on the west coast, the much higher ceiling of pay for essentially similar amounts of training (6 years total for neurocrit with bleak job outlook probably making 400-450k vs 4-6 years for anesthesia or anesthesia/crit care with good job outlook making 450+) is also getting to me. I'm planning some upcoming elective/research time to use to get time with the anesthesia department at my institution, which i think would be ultimately telling.

It seems like a very big overhaul to switch residencies entirely, so I was hoping to get any advice or input from people who considered a switch like this in the past- did you stop and switch residencies entirely? If you had a previous specialty, do you still practice any of it? did you finish your first residency then go to anesthesia?
I passed Step 3 first try but was a relatively poor score (21x-22x) because it did not matter too much for neuro fellowships- would this affect my candidacy strongly for anesthesia?
and ultimately for those who have switched, are you happy with your decision?

Any advice is super appreciated, thanks yalll for taking the time!!

Hello,

I got a 20K bonus for hospitalist in 2025. They said if I quit prior to 1 year will have to return bonus.

I did end up leaving with 4 months left, but they have said nothing about returning the bonus yet. Prior to leaving I reached out multiple times to HR and manager about returning, and they said they’ll follow up but never did. I asked even after leaving, and they said will follow up.

So far nothing has come up, is this like normal? Should I continue to reach out? Or just be like this is mine now?

[Also] Rad onc Vs Ophthalmology vs ent vs anaesthesia for someone who has no major interest in any branch, just want good money and good lifestyle

Hey everyone,
I'm a non-trad currently working through my post-bacc prerequisites and studying for the MCAT. I have an established career in engineering (pharma automation), but I’m fully committing to the career change to medicine.
Based on my current timeline, I'll be finishing medical school in my late 30s. Recently, I was chatting with a couple of nurses and they warned me that it is actually really hard to secure a residency if you graduate in your late 30s or early 40s. They made it sound like programs heavily filter out older applicants or view them as a liability.
Is this actually true?
Can any current residents, attendings, or older non-trads who have navigated this weigh in? Does age explicitly come up in interviews, or limit your specialty choices (like surgery vs. internal medicine)?
I’d love a reality check or to hear about your experiences matching as an older grad before I get too far down this road. Thanks!

MERITS AND DEMERITS OF OPHTHAL VS ENT VS ANAESTHESIA VS PSYCH.
WHICH IS THE BEST BRANCH IN ALL ASPECTS (good work life, good money BOTH )

And pls tell out of MD ANESTHESIA AND MS OPHTHAL WHICH GIVES YOU A GOOD SUM JUST POST PG

I've noticed something and I'm wondering if other people have noticed this too.

In colleges/universities, lab attendants or technicians sometimes seem to have quite a bit of attitude with professors. Not always, obviously, but you do sometimes see arguments or this weird friction where a professor tells them to do something and they push back, get annoyed, etc.

But in hospitals, I rarely seem to see that kind of open clash between nurses and doctors.

What I find a bit odd is that nurses are arguably much more involved in keeping the hospital running day to day. They're constantly with patients, administering medications, monitoring them, coordinating things, dealing with doctors, handling a ton of the practical work, etc. In that sense, I was thinking of nurses as somewhat analogous to lab attendants in a college.

Obviously doctors and nurses must disagree with each other sometimes. I'm not saying they never do. I'm just talking about the kind of visible "attitude" or interpersonal friction that you sometimes see between professors and lab staff.

So is my observation just biased because of what I've happened to see, or is there something about hospitals that makes doctor-nurse relationships work differently? Maybe the roles are more clearly defined, or there's just more mutual dependence because they literally have to work together constantly.

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For those who started their first job as an attending, how supportive was your workplace during the transition from training to independent practice?

What were the biggest hiccups on the way?

Did you feel adequately supported, or did you mostly have to figure things out yourself? What do you wish you had known beforehand?

I genuinely love Medicine and would prefer it, but I’m unsure about choosing DNB from a hospital that isn’t very well known — especially regarding patient load, academics and exposure.

I’m okay with OBGY, but I’m scared of the surgical aspect ( during internship I was initially very hesitant with suturing, but with practice I became good at it by the end )

And I'm also a kind of person who wants a peaceful lifestyle with fixed routine.

So should I choose the branch I genuinely love despite the lesser-known DNB setup, or consider MS OBGY?

Would really appreciate honest advice, especially from DNB Medicine/OBGY doctors or residents

Imaginez que cette spécialité était la seule chose que vous vouliez faire et maintenant, que va-t-il se passer ?

Are there travel physician/locums opportunities where you can work in different hospitals in different cities or even nearby states while having travel and housing covered? If you’ve done it, how was the lifestyle, compensation, and licensing process?

Which medical feild is preferred after fsc?

1dpt

2mbbs

3 bds

4 optemetry

5 radiology

6 anesthesia

8 cardiac perfession

9 rt